The Doctor's Donna
by The Glorious Cheshire Cat
Summary: A 'what if' fic. What if there actually was a way to save Donna at the end of Journey's End? What if the only reason the Doctor never thought of it was because he was blinded by his love for Donna? Let's see...
1. Chapter 1: Undoing a Paradox

The Doctor's Donna

By: The Glorious Cheshire Cat

Chapter 1: Undoing a Paradox

Disclaimer: I don't own _Doctor Who_ or _Torchwood_. I'm just going to play with the characters. Please enjoy.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The Doctor leaned against the TARDIS console, mind oddly blank for once.

The only thing he saw was Donna's face as she lay sleeping.

There came a loud crunch from behind him, sounding very much like someone taking a large bite out of a ripe apple.

He turned and saw a teenage girl sitting on the jump seat.

She had curly red hair and looked strangely familiar.

He couldn't tell what color her eyes were as they were firmly hidden behind dark green tinted lenses of a pair of glasses that were identical to the pair he'd worn when he'd been on the spaceship that had been stalking Madame de Pompadour.

She took another loud bite of the bright green apple she held in her hand and chewed it as she looked him over. "Ya know, there is a way to get her back."

He stood up straight, an expression of confusion on his face. "What?!"

The girl stood up and crossed over to him. She poked him in the chest with the pointer finger of the hand holding the apple. "You, oh great Doctor, Last of the Time Lords, etcetera, etcetera, can get one Donna Noble, the most important woman, the most special woman in the universe, back."

He took half a step back. "No. No, no, no. It can't be done. If she ever remembers anything about me or the TARDIS or anything we've done, it'll kill her. I had to wipe her memories. There was no other way."

The half-eaten apple hit the top of his head.

"Of course there was another way! How stupid are you?! There's always more than one way to do something if you think about it!" the girl raged.

He rubbed the top of his head. "You hit me with an apple. Hard."

She put her hands on her hips. "You were being an idiot. And if you must know, I've always been told I take after my mother. She's not someone you cross. Anyway, we were discussing you getting Donna Noble back."

He turned to walk farther into the TARDIS. "There wasn't another way. I did what had to be done."

A large bolt hit the back of his head.

"Oi, you! Don't you walk away from me just yet! I'm not done talking."

He whirled around, getting angry with the teenager.

She wasn't cowed by the power that shined in his deep brown eyes.

"There wasn't anything else I could do! I would have done it if there was! Anything to keep her with me!" he yelled.

"You could have turned her into a Time Lord." the girl stated softly, hands held out to him palms up. "You can still do it. You have time."

He stared at her in shock. "Wha…How…But that's impossible! It can't be done!"

She smiled softly and shook her head. "You're all the same, every last one of you. Why is it that all male Time Lords are so stubborn and idiotic? You just can't see it."

He was instantly on his guard. "What do you know about Time Lords?"

She grinned. "Absolutely everything. And I should very well know all there is to know seeing as I'm one of them."

He took out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at her.

The readings were conclusive; the girl was 100% Time Lord.

He stared at her in utter shock. "Who are you?"

Her smile turned wistful.

"That's not important. What _is_ important is that I fix the paradox that is taking place right now. You need Donna Noble. And she needs you."

"Where are you from?" He had to know.

"The future. I won't tell you when or where or who's future I come from, just know that if the two of you don't get together again…my future and perhaps the future of the universes won't exist. Everything could collapse and be destroyed." She sat back down on the jump seat. "I can help you. I can show you what you need; can tell you how to put it together. But I can't do much more. You are the one who has to undo and fix what has been done. You have to undo the paradox."

*~*~*~*~*~*


	2. Chapter 2: Alerting Daddy

Chapter 2: Alerting Daddy

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Thank you to Banana Babe903 and pollockmastriani. I'm glad you like it. I guess it's a good thing I had chapter two already written, then isn't it? Much love to my fellow Who-fanatics.

*~*~*~*~*~*

He paced around the console. "Let me get this straight. You're from the future, but if I don't make Donna Noble remember and change her into a Time Lord, that future and all the universes may be destroyed."

She nodded.

He faced her. "What's your name?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm only here for a little while and that whole time, she can't see me, nor can her mum." She joined him at the console.

He looked down at her. "Why not? I'm sure Donna would be thrilled to meet the person who made sure she could travel with me for forever."

She smiled up at him sadly and fiddled with a red curl when she looked down at all the knobs and switches. "One day you'll know. There's just something about females that makes them special, and if they see me, they'll know. And I can't risk this going wrong. There's too much at stake."

"What will they know?"

She slowly walked around the console before stopping at the top of the ramp leading to the door. She stared at the door. "One day you'll know, Doctor. One day it'll be so clear to you that you'll wonder how you never saw it before. I can't tell you."

"What do I call you then?"

She turned to him with a smirk firmly on her face. "My title is the Historian, just like yours is the Doctor."

"Are there more? More Time Lords than just you?" He had to know if the emptiness, the cold loneliness in his head would be gone.

She smiled a true smile at him. "Trust me. There's more than enough of us. I'm just the first of a huge bunch and we're nowhere _near_ being done. Only a couple of us are at the age to where we can go branch off and start our own portions of the new Time Lord Empire. The emptiness, the feeling of being absolutely alone, it's not there. Let's just say that it can get quite loud at times."

He smiled. "Good. Well, I'll show you to a room then. I know you don't need much sleep, but you'll need a place to stay while you're here."

She gave a short nod and followed him down the hallway that led deeper into the TARDIS.

They got about three hallways in before a hallway full of doors appeared.

There was a cherry wood door with a carving of a crescent moon with a rose vine wrapped around it about halfway down the hall.

She opened the door to find her room, the room she'd had since it was time to get a 'big girl room' (according to her father) at age three. She smiled softly and sent a mental thought of thanks to the TARDIS.

It merely hummed in response. It knew who she was, what she was, and it couldn't have been happier.

The Doctor nodded at her choice in room. "Well, I'll let you get settled in. I've got a lot to think about."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. And don't worry about it too much. Where I'm from, you do it and nothing bad happens to her."

He nodded and walked off, mind going over everything.

She shut the door and leaned against, taking off the glasses.

Her blue eyes met those of her reflection's.

With a deep sigh, she turned the key and walked over to the bed.

She pulled a picture out of her pocket and leaned it against the lamp so she could stare at all the people in the picture. She smiled at the sight of her parents and all her siblings.

_How did Daddy ever get by? All this _silence_…I wish Wilfred were here._ She thought to herself.

She missed her twin.

Her eyes traced his face in the picture.

Wilfred, or the Captain (in honor of not only the whole of the brood's godfather, but their great-grandfather whom he'd been named after) as everyone except the family knew him by, looked exactly like their father's tenth regeneration, one he'd yet to get out of. Wilfred, called Wilf by his family (or Freddie if she was feeling particularly mischievous), had straight hair instead of curly hair like their father, so his hair was usually styled into spikes.

She smiled as she saw where she was in the photograph. She was right where she'd always loved being, between her parents.

Her father had his arm wrapped around her shoulders and her mother held her hand.

A pillow appeared next to her on the bed.

She picked it up and held it close, inhaling the scent still clinging to it.

It was the comforting scent of her mother.

There were few absolute certainties in her life, but the ones that did exist were dear to her: the fact that her family loved her, that her father and siblings (most of them boys) were as batty as all get-out (some days she was just like them), that her parents adored each other and were so in love someone could literally choke and die on the amount of love they gave off for each other and their children, that her family would do whatever they had to in order to protect each other, and that she was very much her parents' child and took after her mother.

The corner of a bright green piece of paper stuck out from behind the photo.

She grabbed it and turned it over.

A bright green post-it note was there.

Written in her twin's untidy scrawl was a message: _Never forget that we love you, Minnie._

A smaller message in her mother's hand was below it.

_And never forget that you are special in more ways than one. -__ Mummy_

Minerva 'Minnie' Alexandria Noble smiled as she replaced the photo and lay down. She held the pillow close and breathed in the scent of her mother, Donna Noble. She yawned and pulled the covers over her body, knowing that the temperature in her room would rise later but that she'd still be cold.

It seemed that not being able to stay warm was a genetic trait she and her mother shared, not to mention that they both could hit hard enough to send the person being slapped into next week.

Sleep stole over the nineteen year old Time Lord and she fell into dreams about her family and nightmares about what would happen if she didn't succeed in helping her father change her mother.

*~*~*~*

The Doctor stood in the Console Room, replaying everything that had been said by the Historian.

For some strange reason, he felt like he could trust her without a doubt. Yet there was something about her that made him wonder.

It seemed like she knew things about him that few people did and she had such a familiar air about her. It all made him wonder if she didn't have some intense personal reason to make sure Donna became a Time Lord and they went back to traveling together.

The TARDIS gave him what was the mental equivalent to one of Donna's slaps.

"What was that for?!" he questioned.

_Don't worry about the child. The poor dear is doing what she needs to do. She is very special._

"Her idea is impossible. It can't be done." he muttered.

The TARDIS gave him another mental slap.

_The young one did not travel all this way for nothing. She knew what she was doing. There is a large chance that she may never get back to where she is from, a large chance she may never see her family again. If Donna Noble is not changed, then not only will everything the poor child knows not exist, but you will live with silence in your mind for the rest of your days. From what she knows, this has all been done before and everything worked out fine. Do not doubt her, for she doubts herself enough. Have faith, Doctor, have faith._

He ran a hand through his hair. "For Donna's sake I'll believe her, but if it doesn't work and Donna dies, I'm leaving her on the first planet I come to. She won't stay on Earth."

_You won't have to._

He looked up at the Time Rotor. "What do you mean by that?"

The TARDIS said nothing. It wasn't its secret to tell.

The Doctor grumbled a bit before opening his mind to the connection between him and the Historian.

A small smile spread across his face when he found that she was sleeping.

He took out his sonic screwdriver and began to work on a circuit of the console. He'd wake her up in awhile so they could begin gathering the things they'd need.

*~*~*~*

She burrowed deeper under the blankets, trying to ignore the loud pounding at the door to her room.

As a Time Lord she didn't need a lot of sleep, but when she did sleep, she would only get up if the room around her was as warm as the cocoon of blankets she'd wrapped around her in the night. She was too much like her mother.

The pounding continued.

She threw back the blankets and glared at the door. "All right! I'm up! Geez! Don't you know that traveling through time without a TARDIS is exhausting?" She swung her feet over the side of her bed, pulling them back up when she felt the cold floor through the dark blue rug that lay by her bed.

The TARDIS immediately warmed the room up to match the high temperature she'd created during the night spent wrapped in her blankets.

She smiled at the room and stood up.

"Are you absolutely awake now?" the Doctor asked from the other side of the door.

She ran a hand through the rats' nest that was now her hair, fingers snagging on some tangles. "Mostly. I'll be out in a bit, just need to take a shower."

"Right. Kitchen's down the hall to the right, towards the Console Room. The TARDIS should help you get there all right."

"Thanks." She entered the en suite bathroom that was connected to her room. "I know where the kitchen is. I _am_ the one that cooks for the lot of us, thank you very much." She turned on the water in the shower to let it heat up.

Twenty minutes later found her in the kitchen, freshly washed and groomed, dressed in a pair of jeans with dark blue roses drawn on them with glitter fabric paint and a peasant blouse that matched the roses.

The Doctor stuck his head into the room. "What are you cooking?"

She looked up from the mushrooms she was chopping. "An omelet. Would you like one?"

"What all are you putting in it?" he questioned.

"Mushrooms, cheese, sausage, onion, and other things." She flipped the hash browns she was making.

He sat down at the table. "No thanks. Omelets just aren't my thing."

She smiled at him. "Then it's a good thing that I mixed up some banana pancake mix."

"Banana pancakes?"

She nodded and used a new spatula to flip the fluffy looking pancakes on the griddle behind the pan she was going to use to make her omelet.

Toast popped up from the toaster.

"Could you butter those?" she questioned.

He stood up and joined her at the counter. He buttered the toast and put some more bread in the toaster.

Ten minutes later found the two of them sitting at the table with empty plates before them and an open jar of marmalade before each of them.

The Doctor looked over at her as she used two fingers to get some of the peach marmalade from the jar. "Where'd you learn to cook like that?"

She licked her fingers clean and swallowed the glob in her mouth. "I've always been able to cook. I cook almost every meal for my family since Daddy can barely make pancakes without burning down the kitchen and Mum can barely make toast. I'm sort of scared to go back and see what happened to the kitchen in my absence."

He ate a glob of marmalade from his fingers. "You must be very important to your family."

She smiled, fingers loaded with marmalade and held still before her mouth. "I'm the oldest child and my parents rely on me a lot. I get teased that I'm Mum and Daddy's favorite by the younger ones." She ate the marmalade, careful not to drop any of it.

He chuckled. "You eat your marmalade so neatly."

"Mum _hates_ it when any of us kids eat marmalade with our fingers. I've learned over the years that if I eat it with my fingers, I can't drop any on my clothes or she'll know. I tend to know when she's about to enter the kitchen in the mornings so I can grab a spoon and make it look like I've been eating it from a jar with a spoon." She hummed happily as she ate some more.

The Doctor put the lid on his jar of marmalade and put it on the table. "We should probably get started on gathering the parts we need to make whatever it is that can change Donna into a Time Lord."

Minerva put the lid on her own jar. "Just let me put all these dishes in the dishwasher and I'll join you in the Console Room."

He nodded and stood up. "All right. Any place we need to go to in particular?"

"The Medusa Cascade, but that's not until later when everything's been built. I'll give you the list when I'm done here." She started to pile the dishes up to carry them over to the dishwasher.

The Doctor watched her.

She rolled her eyes, freed one hand from the pile she carried, dug in her pocket for the list, and handed it to him. "Go on, go set the coordinates. I hate being watched while I clean."

He took the paper and left.

"Minnie, you're batty." she muttered to herself. "You should have known he wouldn't just leave you be. He's always got to be doing something after all." She loaded the dishwasher and started it.

The Doctor was dancing around the console when she entered the room.

She leaned against the railing and just watched. She'd always loved to watch her father dance around the console and loved it even more when her mother joined him since it always looked as if they were waltzing.

He paused and looked at her. "You said you traveled through time without a TARDIS. What happened to yours?"

She laughed. "Nothing. It's just not done growing yet. Won't be for another five or six years."

"Then how'd you get here?"

She shrugged. "I'm special, or so Mum claims. I don't think I'm all that special. And I don't really need to be special; I'm happy just being plain old me."

"Have you ever flown a TARDIS?"

"Let's just say that my twin has been forbidden by our mother from ever touching the controls unless he has his own TARDIS or is the only one who can still fly her and Daddy's TARDIS should something ever happen to her, Daddy, and me. He flies worse than Daddy does." She joined him at the console and flipped the one switch that would send them on their way.

*~*~*~*

They spent two weeks gathering all the technology they needed.

The Doctor stared at the large pile of technology sitting in the middle of a room that at one point was deep in the TARDIS. "What are we going to do with all this?"

Minerva looked up from the Thin Mint cookie she'd just taken from the package she'd pulled from her pocket. "We use it to build the lovely little machine that will change Donna Noble into a Time Lord."

He turned to look at her. "'Little'? There's enough machinery here to build a transmat machine."

She grinned. "It'll be smaller on the outside than on the inside. Trust me."

He turned back to the pile. "Whatever you say."

She ate her cookie as she left the room, heading straight to the Console Room.

They were going to need Torchwood's help in order to build the machine.

The Doctor entered the Console Room two minutes later to find her dancing around the console, pulling levers and twisting knobs and flipping switches.

She moved like a natural, as if she had been born to play with the controls of a TARDIS and send people to different places and times.

The glasses had slipped down her nose and she looked at him from over the top rim with deep blue eyes that were the exact shade of blue as Donna's eyes.

She grinned at him with a manic grin, looking almost as if she were waiting for approval.

He smiled back and flipped the switch.

The Time Rotor rose and fell and they were gone from the planet where they'd gotten the last piece of technology they'd needed.

*~*~*~*

Captain Jack Harkness choked on his coffee when a blue police box appeared in the Hub of Torchwood Three. He rushed out of his office.

The door opened and a teenage girl he'd never seen before stepped out.

He instantly had a gun trained on her when he saw the strange power that shined from the blue eyes she'd instantly hid by pushing the glasses she wore farther up her nose.

She held up her hands. "I'm unarmed. Well, I have two arms, but that's beside the point. I just don't have any weapons."

The Doctor stepped out the TARDIS. "Put the gun away, Jack."

He lowered it. "Who's the girl?"

The Doctor walked over to him. "She's called the Historian. She's a Time Lord."

Jack looked at the Doctor in shock. "I thought you were the last one."

"She's from the future. She says there might be a way to save Donna."

Jack grinned. "That's great! I've been trying to keep an eye on her for you, but with this job it's sort of hard to do."

The Doctor tried his hardest to sound as if he weren't desperate for news about Donna, but failed completely. "How is she?"

"Back to how her life was before she met you. She's temping at a law firm. If it weren't for the fact that it'd kill her because what we do is similar to what you and she went through, I'd employ her here as my secretary." Jack answered.

The Doctor nodded, his mind far away in Chiswick, London with the red head that held his hearts in her hands.

Jack noticed this and slid closer to Minerva. "Hello. Captain Jack Harkness. It's nice to meet you."

Minerva smirked and rose up to her tip-toes in order to whisper in his ear. "I wouldn't flirt with me if I were you, Uncle Jack. I'd hate for Daddy to deck you if I ever get back to the future and he realizes that you did flirt with me." She pulled away.

Jack was shocked. He looked between the Doctor and Minerva.

She smiled softly. "Yes, he is. But he doesn't know and you can't tell him."

Jack leaned close to her. "What's this plan to save Donna?"

"He's going to need your help to build a machine that can completely rewrite her DNA sequence and turn her into a Time Lord. I can't touch anything or it might start a huge paradox that may not be able to be fixed. I can tell you how to build it and use it, but I can't do anything with it." She glanced at the Doctor.

He was still was still lost in his thoughts.

"Who's your mother?" Jack questioned.

She pulled her glasses down to the tip of her nose and gave him a look that was pure Donna Noble.

Jack grinned. "How many kids do they have?"

She pushed her glasses (which did belong to her father at one point) back into their spot. "I can't tell you. But at some point, when this works and she becomes a Time Lord, if they aren't together in three months after she changes or he hasn't proposed, lock them in a closet together."

"Will do." He turned back to the Doctor. "So, the Historian tells me that she knows how to build a machine that'll turn Donna into a Time Lord."

The Doctor came back to his self. "What? Yeah. She can't help build it, but she can tell me how to build it and the basics in using it." He turned to Minerva. "Just why are we here exactly?"

"You're going to need Torchwood's help. Not only will you need help building it, but they have to activate the Rift for a short amount of time in order to charge it enough that it'll work. After that, we have to go to the Medusa Cascade and get the most vital piece of it so that it'll work properly." She leaned against the TARDIS. "To function properly, it needs a Medusi Crystal."

"Those are next to impossible to find and get." the Doctor told her.

"Not unless you know where to look. There's a small section of the Medusa Cascade that contains nothing but Medusi Crystals. In the timeline I'm from, the Shadow Proclamation finds out about this small patch of crystals in two years time from now and proclaims it a protected section. It's guarded very well and anyone found trying to gather crystals there are to be punished on the spot with death. I know where it's at and can get us right in the thick of it."

Jack looked between the two. "Just what exactly are 'Medusi Crystals'?"

The Doctor answered the question. "An inexhaustible power source. They're very rare now. At one time, before Gallifrey was destroyed, they could be found all over the Medusa Cascade. The Time Lord Council regulated the trade and collection of the Medusi Crystals to prevent their misuse. That was one of the reason Davros started the Time War. He wanted them in order to make the Daleks 'all-powerful'."

"With the right amount of crystals, you could power a planet for the rest of eternity. But when Gallifrey was destroyed and the Time War locked, the Medusi Crystals began to disappear without the cultivating of the Time Lords. Now they're extremely hard to find and near impossible to gather unless you know how. Luckily for us, I know how to collect them." Minerva stepped past the two males and walked over to the Rift Manipulator. "I love this thing." She hugged it.

Jack gave her an incredulous look. "The Rift Manipulator? Why?"

She lightly ran her fingertips over some of the pipes and circuits. "There's so much you all don't know that you'll find out and it's just one of the most wonderful pieces of tech besides the TARDIS in all of the universes and dimensions. 'Course that Dimension Cannon in Pete's World ain't half bad either, but it's still nothing compared to this baby when it gets to its proper form."

Ianto and Gwen entered the Hub and stopped short when they saw the TARDIS.

"What's that doing in here? He usually parks outside." Gwen stated.

Minerva grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, sorry. My fault."

Ianto looked over at her. "How did you get past all of the security measures?"

She grinned. "Oh, I've always been able to get past them. Figured it out way long time ago for me. It'll be a few years yet before it happens for you lot. And trust me, this was utter child's play compared to the first time I did it. So many more programs set up and many tied together like a ball of knotted string; near impossible to get through unless you can find the teeny tiny little holes. Few people can actually. Just me and Mum most of the time unless there's an emergency Daddy needs help with."

Gwen gave her a suspicious look. "Just who are you?"

Minerva bowed. "My name is not important at the moment. You may all call me the Historian. I'm here to assist the Doctor in getting back Donna Noble."

"But if she remembers, she'll die. Or at least that's what Jack said." Ianto returned.

She grinned and walked over to the coffee machine. "Ah, but at that time, the Doctor couldn't think straight. There is a way." She began to go about making a fresh pot of coffee.

Jack answered the unasked question of his team. "She knows how to build a machine that'll change Donna into a Time Lord." He looked over at Minerva. "You know, only Ianto can work that thing. We've all tried."

She smirked as she pressed a couple buttons and gave the coffee maker a soft flick with her finger. "You lot just don't have that 'special touch'."

The coffee maker instantly began to make coffee.

Jack and Gwen stared at her in shock.

Ianto joined her at the coffee maker. "How did you know how to do that? I thought I was the only one who knew what to do."

She smiled at him. "Apparently, if all this happens like it should, you're going to need someone to help you out down here. You teach them how to do it for reasons I can't tell you."

"And you learned from them?" he questioned.

She made a noise that wasn't a noise that agreed or disagreed with what he'd said. "Let's just say that I learned what was taught to me and leave it at that. Can't go about mucking with the future after all. S'not proper."

The Doctor cleared his throat. "Perhaps we could get started."

Minerva held up five fingers and began to count down.

The alarms went off when she reached zero.

Everyone stared at her in shock.

"Right. Off the lot of you go, including you, Doctor. They'll need you for this one. I'll just stay here and wait for you to get back." She picked up a mug and entered the little kitchen area and set about making a cup of hot herbal tea.

The members of Torchwood shared a look.

"Can you hold down the fort and get in contact with us if something else pops up?" Jack questioned as he grabbed his coat.

"I'm nineteen, thank you. I'm big and responsible enough that my parents let me drive their TARDIS and watch over the large brood that is my family while they go out for dinner once a month and not have to worry if they're coming back to a burnt out hull or some horrible event. I'm sure I can handle keeping the Hub in one piece." She gave him a stern look. "Now go before someone gets seriously hurt." She went back to making tea.

The moment the four others were out the door, she stopped making tea and entered the central Hub.

"You can come out now, _sister_. I know you're there." She crossed her arms tightly.

A blonde stepped out from the shadows.

"Hello, little sister." Jenny stated with a sickly sweet smile. "Fancy seeing you here."

"What the hell do you want?" Minerva returned.

"You to leave. Dad doesn't need you."

"You wanna bet? You're not even a true Time Lord, Jenny. You can't feel the loneliness that he feels deep down. You can't feel the self-hatred he holds within himself. I can. He needs my mother. She's the only one who can ease his loneliness and the only one who can handle him with all of his power. She is the only one who can contain him when he starts becoming the Oncoming Storm. There is a reason why she is the Calm Fire until she gets upset, Jenny. Without her, me and the others don't exist."

Jenny lifted her head up higher. "He doesn't need any of you. He's got me. I'll program the TARDIS to take him to the me of this time once I'm done with you."

"You don't get it! You can't see the timelines. You can't see what could happen, what might happen. I can! If he doesn't get her back…"

"What will happen then? What'll happen if that bitch doesn't get changed?"

Minerva reined in her temper, trying to make sure the Doctor couldn't feel her emotions through the link. "She'll be killed by a drunk driver. He'll find out about it and put himself on a path of self-destruction, going into situation after situation full of danger. He'll purposely get himself killed until he's got no regenerations left. He's only got three. And when the thirteenth him comes, he'll kill himself as soon as he recovers from the regeneration sickness. The TARDIS will die and you will be stuck where you were found. He'd do all of this long before any program you could ever figure out doing to the TARDIS ever kicked in."

"You little liar! Dad would never do that. He doesn't even love that stupid breeding cow you call your mother. He only feels guilty." Jenny hissed.

Minerva's hold on her temper snapped.

"You've never asked him, Jenny! You've never sat down and asked him to tell his life story! You've not seem him when she's been taken hostage by some aliens or torn from his arms on some planet! You've never seen the fear that flashes through his eyes when he glances at her when a scuffle breaks out and might turn serious or when she goes into labor!" Minerva yelled at her.

Jenny took a small step back. "It's because of you and her and the rest of you brats that he won't talk to me for more than two minutes. If she never changes, he'll still be there for me!"

"HE IS THERE FOR YOU! Mum tried to welcome you. She wanted you to be part of our family, to travel with us. But you were unreasonable. If you'd pay attention, you'd realize that he only hangs up on you when you start calling Mum and us names. He's tried to talk with you, Jenny, you've just never listened!"

"You're wrong. He hangs up on me the moment one of you walks into the room and I see you. And I'm going to tell him. I'm going to tell him that you're going to ruin his life, that you're not really going to tell him how to build a machine that'll rewrite her DNA, but a machine that'll kill her and make you stronger. He'll get rid of you faster than you can blink." Jenny returned with a vicious grin.

Minerva took of her glasses and placed them on a desk.

A fraction of the power she possessed was allowed to shine through, letting Jenny see some of what she was capable of through her glowing eyes.

"You'll have to get past me first, Jenny. And trust me, there's a very good reason why many people know me as the Flaming Shadow." She smirked at her half-sister. "Care to go a round or two with me?"

Jenny said nothing, just threw herself at Minerva, fist ready to strike.

*~*~*~*

A few blocks away, the Doctor was putting up his sonic screwdriver after using it to neutralize the thing that had come through the Rift.

He almost dropped it when he felt Minerva's rage in the back of his mind. He turned to Jack. "How fast can we get back to the Hub?"

"We can be there in three minutes if we have to. Why? Is something wrong?" Jack asked.

"Something must be. The Historian is very… I can feel her rage over something, but she's guarding her mind and I can't tell what's made her so upset. She might be in trouble."

Jack instantly yelled for Gwen and Ianto.

The four, and the new piece of alien tech, were on their way back to the Hub in less than thirty seconds.

The sight that greeted them when the Hub door opened was one they weren't prepared for.

A blonde was attacking the girl they knew as the Historian, who looked like she was holding her own in the fight, if not winning.

She tossed the blonde off her and pulled back her fist.

The blonde tried to duck, but wasn't quick enough. She disappeared in a flash of light.

Minerva stood there, breathing heavily as she tried to control her temper. She slid to the ground and leaned against the pole behind her back.

"What the hell happened here?!" Jack demanded.

She smiled wryly as she pulled a knee up and rest her forehead on it, eyes closed. "My half-sister dropped by."

"What's she doing here?" Jack questioned. He figured that if she was actually the Doctor's daughter, then the blonde had to be the Jenny that Martha and Donna had told him about.

She reached up and grabbed the glasses from the table behind her and put them on before looking up at them. "She blames my mum and my siblings and me for what's happening between her and Daddy. She hates Mum and calls her horrible names. I don't care if she calls me names, but not my parents or siblings."

The Doctor walked over to her and scanned her with his sonic screwdriver. "You seem to be all right. Where did you learn how to fight?"

"My godfather taught me. Said it might come in handy and so it has. My half-sister was born to fight, but she doesn't have the instinct that I do when it comes down to hand-to-hand combat. If she were ever to get some sort of range weaponry, I'd be no good. Too much like Daddy since I hate to fight and to get me to fight, you have to make me lose my temper." She stood up. "I'll start cleaning up. I helped make the mess; the least I can do is pick it up and set it right." She began to pick up the papers that had gotten displaced.

The Doctor studied her. "Who are you really?"

She smiled at him. "I can't tell you."

"And why not?"

"Spoilers."

He gaped at her.

She grinned. "Always did like Miss Song. Wonderful lady from what I heard. Met her once by pure chance, really sweet if a bit of an airhead until she gets focused on something." She hummed a tune under her breath as she went back to cleaning up after the fight.

The Doctor shook his head and set about helping her.

Jack pulled her to the side once everything was set to rights and the Doctor was busy helping examine the alien tech. "That was Jenny wasn't it?"

She glanced over at the Doctor to make sure he wasn't listening. "Yeah. He hangs up on her every time she starts calling us names. Uses the same words every time. 'Jenny, I'm getting off now. Call back when you can be civil.' Pisses her off. She believes he doesn't love Mum, says he just feels guilty about erasing her memory."

"That's not true. Well, he does feel guilty about doing that, but he's nuts about Donna." Jack returned.

Minerva nodded, eyes still fixed on the Doctor. "She's never seen his eyes when something happens to her, never seen the fear, the desperation, the love. Every atom of his being is put towards loving her. He loves her most and best of all."

"Give me proof that you're his child, their child. I want to make sure that she might not be trying to stop you because you're some crazed alien bent on trying to ruin the Doctor's life."

She looked at him. "Let's go to the morgue. What I'm about to show you can't be seen by the others, especially him."

Jack nodded and led the way.

The Doctor followed them with his eyes. He'd heard the last thing she'd said and wondered what was going on. He wanted to follow them, but knew he'd never get away with it.

*~*~*~*

Minerva pulled out an empty body tray and hopped up on it.

Jack stood before her. "What now?"

She smiled. "Now I show you some memories. Put two fingers of each hand on my temples. It'll feel weird at first, but the feeling should pass. I'm going to open my mind and let you in, but only to certain memories. There are things you can't know yet."

Jack did as she said and almost fell to his knees when she did what she said she was going to do.

Blurry images flashed by him.

Finally, one stopped.

The Doctor and Donna were standing at the TARDIS console in each other's arms, smiling softly at each other.

Jack was standing next to them.

Minerva appeared at his side. "They can't hear or see us. But we can see and hear everything that took place."

"When is this?" Jack questioned.

"I was about four. Just watch." She nodded at the doorway leading to the rest of the TARDIS.

A little girl that was the spitting image of Donna, but with curly hair appeared in the doorway, a lovingly patched up cloth rabbit being dragged by one arm.

The Doctor looked over at her. "What's the matter Minnie?"

She ran into the room and attached herself to his leg. "Had a nightmare, Daddy."

He reached down and picked her up. "And what has scared my little Time Princess, hmm?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Some bad, bad mean people took me and Wilfie away and you and Mummy couldn't find us. And Mummy was really sad. Me and Wilfie escaped, but you left us 'cause we didn't run to the TARDIS fast enough."

He hugged her close. "We'd never leave you or your brother anywhere, Minnie. Nothing could stop your mother and me from finding you, absolutely nothing. We'd tear apart the multiverse to find you two."

She smiled softly and yawned. She rested her head sleepily on his shoulder. "Would you check my room for nightmares and scare them away, Daddy? 'Cause everyone has nightmares, even the nightmares."

He chuckled. "Yep. And you know what the nightmares have nightmares about?"

She looked up at him from half-lidded eyes. "You."

"Mostly your mother I think, 'cause she hits so hard."

Donna slapped his arm. "Oi, you! Watch it, Spaceman, or you'll be sleeping on the floor tonight."

The Doctor gave her a quick kiss and a grin. "I'm sure the nightmares do have nightmares about you, love. But Minnie is right. Nightmares have nightmares about me."

"'Cause you're the Oncoming Storm, right Daddy?" the little girl asked tiredly.

He kissed the top of her head. "That's right sweetie. And your Mum's the Calm Fire unless she's mad, then she's the Raging Blaze."

"What am I, Daddy?"

He grinned. "You're my little Time Princess. And you know what? It's time for all sleepy little Time Princesses to be tucked back into bed. Tell your Mum goodnight."

The little girl lifted her head. "Goodnight Mummy."

Donna kissed the little girl's cheek. "Goodnight baby. Pleasant dreams."

The Doctor laughed. "They will be once I scare away all the nightmares." He left the room with the little girl.

The image changed to all black.

Jack turned his head to look at Minerva. "Where are we now?"

"This is one of my earliest memories. My twin and I were still in Mum's womb, about two weeks before we were born. I've no picture to put to this memory, just sound. Listen."

The sound of a double heartbeat could be heard, followed by the low singing of a male voice in a language Jack didn't know and the TARDIS (which still translated things for Jack) wouldn't translate.

"That's Daddy singing a Gallifreyan lullaby. He used to sing it to us every night. Now he sings it to the little ones." Minerva whispered.

The singing stopped to be replaced by the sound of the Doctor's voice.

"Hello Minnie and Freddie. This is your Dad. Your Mum's asleep now, which is the only reason I'm talking to you right now. She hates it when I do this when she's awake. Says she looks like a whale, but that's not true. Your Mum's the most beautiful woman in the whole entire universe and the most special too, despite all she says. And I'm certain that the two of you will be just as wonderful as your Mum. I'll bet you're going to be your Mum made over, Minnie. Jack says that I should hope you aren't since I'm going to have trouble keeping the boys and men of any place we visit away from you. But if you're anything like your Mum, you'll slap hard enough to send them into next week." the Doctor said softly.

"Go to sleep and stop talking to my stomach. I look like a whale and they'll be here soon enough that you can start gabbing their ears off." Donna's voice stated.

The Doctor chuckled. "Yes, love." He spoke back to the two infants. "Now you two get plenty of rest and be good by not disturbing your Mum's rest, all right? We both can't wait till you're born."

The image changed once more to show Minerva in the kitchen of the TARDIS, busy cooking.

A teenage boy, who looked exactly like the tenth regeneration of the Doctor, but with hair styled in spikes, sat at the kitchen table, looking like he was nodding off over his bowl of Life cereal.

"This took place shortly before you left didn't it?" Jack asked.

"Day before." Minerva answered.

The her at the stove turned to face her twin. "Wakey, wakey Freddie! You're gonna drown in your milk in a minute. Don't think Mum and Daddy want you regenerating just yet."

He lifted his head to glare at her. "My name's not Freddie. It's Wilf."

She smirked. "Whatever Freddie. I told you that you should have gone to bed last night. You just can't make it three full weeks without sleep yet."

"Can so." he retorted.

The Doctor walked into the room. "Hey now, no fighting. It's almost your Mum's birthday. You know the rule: no fighting or causing mayhem or anything else that could make us have to run for our lives during the whole week leading up to her birthday and on her birthday." He sat down at the table and opened the jar of marmalade Minerva set down before him. "You two know what you're getting her yet?"

Wilf poked his soggy cereal with his spoon. "Thought about getting her a deck of Tarot cards so she can predict her future, but I don't want a slap upside the head. Decided to get her a couple dozen roses from the garden."

"She'd like that. Minnie?" The Doctor scooped out some more marmalade with two fingers.

"I want to make her some earrings out of Medusi Crystals." She flipped the banana pancakes she was making.

"Medusi Crystals are protected by the Shadow Proclamation. There's no way you can get any." he replied.

She smiled mysteriously. "I have an idea, don't worry. What are you getting Mum?"

"It's a secret."

She turned to him, laughing softly. "That means you don't know yet. Better figure it out fast, her birthday is in five days."

He grinned. "I'll figure something out. What do you want for _your_ birthday, Minnie? It is your day too."

"Nothing. As long as I have my family, I'm happy. Breakfast is almost done. Could you and Wilf start carrying platters to the dining room? I think the others are stirring. And you might want to get a spoon for that marmalade. Mum's on her way to the kitchen." She began to put large amounts of food on platters.

The image stopped there and Jack was once more in the Torchwood morgue.

He stumbled back. "You really are his daughter."

Minerva grinned. "Yep. I even eat marmalade from a jar with two fingers until Mum gets ready to enter the kitchen in the mornings. Then I make it look like I've been eating it with a spoon."

"And Jenny wants to stop you from helping him turn Donna into a Time Lord? Can't she see how happy he is?"

She shook her head, her grin fading. "No. She refuses. Mum tried to welcome her, tried to get her to be part of the family, but she refused. I can't let her mess this up."

"We'll have to tell the Doctor."

She jumped down from the table. "Yes, we will."

The Doctor entered the room. "Tell me what?"

Minerva looked over at him. "My half-sister wants to prevent us from turning Donna Noble into a Time Lord. She thinks that the reason our Dad rarely talks to her is because of Miss Noble becoming a Time Lord."

"But your father exists because Donna became a Time Lord in your timeline, correct?"

She shook her head. "No. My father _lives_ because she becomes one. My father is one of the happiest beings to ever exist because Donna Noble is a Time Lord. She saves him from himself and she helps bring about the beginnings of the New Time Lord Empire. And it's not the same as the one you've seen. This one does almost everything in its power to help and prevent anyone becoming too powerful. It rights wrongs and makes sure events that cannot be changed stay unchanged."

The Doctor looked at Jack. "We're going to have to be on our guard. Whatever she showed you has you convinced doesn't it?"

Jack crossed his arms. "I trust her without a doubt now. She showed me a couple things that no one can fake. She is who she says she is and she's right in trying to stop her half-sister."

"She's told you who she is then?" the Doctor questioned.

"Not in so many words. I don't know her name, but I know who her parents are. I can't tell you who they are without risking something happening."

Minerva put her hands on her hips. "Well now, let's get started on building that machine, shall we?" She waited for the two males to nod before leading the way to the TARDIS.

*~*~*~*~*~*


	3. Chapter 3: A Minor Complication

Chapter 3: A _Minor_ Complication

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

Pollockmastriani: Trust me; failure is _NOT_ an option for them. I don't think anyone wants anything to happen to the Doctor. And like Minerva told Jenny: Donna and the Doctor _**NEED**_ each other. I'm glad you like it.

And to anyone who cares, it might be a little bit before my next update. I'm going home from college on Saturday, and I live out in the boonies, which means: NO WIRELESS INTERNET!!! *Sobs* But don't worry, I'll work on it and do a mass update at some point unless I decide to drive to my aunt's house to upload stuff when I'm done with a chapter. Just stay with me.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Minerva sat Indian-style on a workbench and watched in great amusement as her father and godfather tried to put together the machine to her directions. She had a hard time not snickering at the fact that her father would flinch slightly when her godfather got too close or that he tried not to touch him.

Jack felt wrong to all of her family, but she and her siblings could stand the 'wrongness' of their godfather since they'd been around him their whole lives; the little ones may have trouble sometimes, but their strong aversion to it would fade as they got older.

She twisted the mint Oreo she held in her hands and went to lick off the mint flavored filling. She paused when the Doctor went to connect two wires. "I wouldn't connect those two if I were you." she told him.

He gave her a slight glare over his 'brainy specs'. "I'm over nine hundred years old. I think I know what I'm doing."

Minerva shrugged. "Suit yourself then." She licked the crème of her cookie and watched as he touched the wires together.

A wave of electrical current sped through the Doctor's body. His crazy hair stood on end and he jumped up from where he sat, letting go of the wires. He danced around the room, shaking his hands as he cursed in different languages.

Both Minerva and Jack burst out laughing at the sight he made.

Minerva laughed so hard that she fell off the other side of the table and landed among some boxes of supposedly 'spare' parts for the TARDIS.

The Doctor crossed his arms and glared at both of them when Minerva stood up. "It isn't funny."

Jack wiped away the tears of mirth that were streaming down his face. "Whatever you say, Doctor."

Minerva grinned a manic grin at him as she leaned on the table. "Oh, it was funny all right. It wasn't as funny as the time my twin tried to help Daddy fix our TARDIS and they both got covered in a shower of sparks because they were messing with something that didn't need messed with. Their hair went every which way and they smoked a little bit for at least ten minutes. And the lecture Mum gave them…Oh, it was memorable."

The Doctor huffed and bent down to try again.

There came a sound of giggling from somewhere in the room.

Minerva stood straight up, eyes darting around the room. "Rassilon please, no. Not here, not now." she muttered.

More giggling came.

Jack and the Doctor both looked up from what they were doing.

"What is that?" Jack questioned.

"If it's what I think it is, I am so going to kill my twin." Minerva told him.

"What's the matter, Miss Minnie? Don't you want to have some fun?" a childish little voice questioned before more giggling happened.

Minerva began to shift stuff around. "Your idea of fun and my idea of fun are two _completely_ different things." she replied semi-sweetly with a strained smile. "And when I find you, I'm putting you in a bottle and pitching it into a black hole."

More giggles were heard.

"Why would you wanna do something like that? It's not very nice, Miss Minnie." the voice told her.

"Neither is some of the stuff you do. Why don't you come out and we'll talk about it?" Minerva ducked down to check underneath the shelving unit that held the tools.

"Nuh-uh, Miss Minnie. You has to find me. Part of the game."

Minerva straightened and put her hands on her hips. "And if I don't play?"

A small being that looked like a pixie appeared by the Doctor and stole the inner components of the device. "Then you doesn't get the prize and everything goes 'BOOM!'. I heard you and Wilfie-Wilf talking. Don't want everything to go 'BOOM!', do we Miss Minnie? Then Mother-lady won't be and Talkie One won't save the multiverse no mores and everything disappears with a 'POP'."

Minerva stared at it. "Oh, no. You can't do that. See, if we don't have that, then _everything_ goes 'POP'. And that includes you, which means, no more fun."

"But you has to play, Miss Minnie. Those is the rules." it replied.

Minerva grabbed the Doctor's suit jacket and rummaged in the pockets. "How about a trade? I'll give you something just as important and I'll play for it."

It clutched the circuitry close and regarded her shrewdly. "Like what?"

Minerva pulled her arm out of the Doctor's pocket (she'd stuck it in up to her elbow) and hid her hand behind her back. She put the suit jacket back on the chair and put her other hand behind her back. "Guess what hand it's in first." _Be ready to grab the circuitry,_ she thought to the Doctor.

He gave a tiny nod.

The pixie-like being looked at her. "Oh, no. I's not falling for that trick again, Miss Minnie. The Talkie One may have got me, but I is too smart to fall for it a second time."

Minerva mentally swore. "Grab it!" She pulled a device from behind her back and aimed it at the little alien as the Doctor made a swipe at what it held.

It squeaked and took off running.

Minerva cursed in Gallifreyan and took off after it.

The Doctor shot to his feet and followed with Jack.

"What is that thing?" Jack questioned.

"A Pixos, but they're supposed to be extinct." the Doctor answered.

Minerva growled in annoyance as they came to a hub that had many hallways leading from it. "It is a Pixos. There's a very small colony that's kept as a show in an inter-planetary circus. My parents took my twin and I to see it once when we were six. That one fixed itself on him and I and escaped, sneaking its way on the TARDIS. It was fine for a couple weeks, but then it started to get out of hand and would get violent when we wouldn't play with it. Well Daddy wasn't about to take that, so he caught it. A couple years back, one of the little ones found the container it was in while my twin and I were babysitting on the night of Mum and Daddy's monthly date. My twin took it from them and swore to me later that night that he'd put it somewhere the others couldn't find it and it couldn't get out."

"The bottle broked and I followed my favorite one. You is always more fun to play with than Wilfie-Wilf, Miss Minnie." the voice of the Pixos stated.

Minerva looked down the different hallways. "I have an idea. I think you'll like it."

"What is it? What is it?" it asked excitedly.

"It's about what will happen if I win. If I win, you'll give the prize to one of the men with me and go into a bottle again. And if you win, you can have one thing you want. Agreed?" Minerva suggested.

"What'll they get if they win?" it asked, referring to the Doctor and Jack.

"The same thing she gets." the Doctor told it.

"Okay! Wanna know the game?"

"Yes. And the rules." Minerva added. She and Wilf had once made the mistake of not asking what the rules were and had ended up getting in trouble for something the Pixos had done.

"Hide-n-go-seek tag. You three is 'it'. The rules is simple. You look for me and if you can tag me when you find me, you wins. But if you gives up…"

"You win." Minerva stated softly. "And just what do you want if you win?"

The voice became darker. "Your soul."

Minerva rolled her eyes. "Great. We're playing a game with an alien that wants my soul and doesn't care if the multiverse is destroyed. Wonderful."

Jack looked at her. "I think this is going to put us off schedule for awhile."

She grinned at him. "Oh, no. This is just a _minor_ complication. Just wait until it goes to turn the tables on you. Then we'll start worrying."

"Let's find it before it does that. Pixos have a bad reputation. And if it wants your soul, then that's bad. Very bad." The Doctor took off down one hallway.

Jack and Minerva took off down a different hallway each.

The Pixos grinned evilly as it appeared where they had been standing. It was finally going to get the powerful and pure pulsing soul that belonged to Minerva.

*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: Short chapter, but only because I have to pack and clean my dorm. The next one will be longer, or so I hope.


	4. Chapter 4: Minor Bcome Major

Chapter 4: Minor Becomes Major, Defeating It, And A Gift

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

As you can see, I'm not dead, nor have I dropped off the face of the Earth. I've just had a slight case of writer's block. Thanks to everyone who reviewed. Much love to you all. –Ches.

Also: _Children of Earth_ does NOT exist in my world. How could they?!! You don't kill off poor Ianto. He was sooooo awesome!

*~*~*~*~*~*

Minerva poked her head into each room and looked for the Pixos. She had to find it before it changed the game on them.

It had almost gotten Wilf stuck in the Middle Ages room on the TARDIS that contained a portal to the Middle Ages that tended to spit you out during a time and place of great danger at one point because the game had changed.

Minerva paused in the hallway and closed her eyes. _Can you help me find it?_ she asked the TARDIS.

_I will try._

_That's all I ask for._ Minerva opened her eyes and continued on.

The Doctor wasn't having much luck either. He pulled out his Sonic Screwdriver and fiddled with it until he got it to the correct setting.

The tip lit up when he pressed the button and he went in the direction it indicated.

Jack was having _slightly_ more luck if one judged by the giggling he was following. He dashed into a room and began to search it.

The Pixos laughed when he hit his head against a filing cabinet as he lunged at it. It ran out the door, dashing past the Doctor.

The two males collided when Jack exited the room and landed in a heap.

The Pixos laughed gleefully and ran farther down the hallway as Jack and the Doctor untangled themselves and stood up.

Minerva stopped in her tracks when she felt something change in the air.

It was a feeling she'd felt before; the feeling that always came when the Pixos changed the rules.

She was off like a flash, headed for the one safe place in the TARDIS that the Pixos couldn't get to, let alone anyone else. She sent off a quick mental message to the Doctor. _The game's changed! Watch out!_

_You go hide. Jack and I will handle catching it,_ the Doctor replied.

Minerva dashed through the doorway that led to the Cloister Bell Room and quickly scrambled into the one hiding spot only she could get to, inside the Cloister Bell itself. She quickly shimmied up the clapper, pulled a long length of rope from her pocket, and tied herself tightly to it in case she was to fall prey to the Pixos' rhyme that made someone lose their strength.

The Pixos ran from room to room with the Doctor and Jack on its heels. It ran into the Cloister Bell Room, not because it knew Minerva was in there, but because it was trying to get to a room it could hide in.

The Cloister Bell Room contained little else besides the Cloister Bell.

The Pixos came to a complete stop and whirled around to face the Doctor and Jack. "I's going to find Miss Minnie. You can't stop me." It grinned.

Minerva had a pretty good idea as to what it was about to do. _Don't let it speak! It's going to use a rhyme the Pixos race knows that drains the strength of those that hear it. You have to drown it out!_

"Sing, Jack! Loud!" the Doctor exclaimed. He began to sing 'One Hundred Bottles of Beer on the Wall' at the top of his lungs.

Jack had no idea what was going on, but he knew that if the Doctor said to do something, it had to be done. He joined in just as loud.

The Pixos started to scream, trying to be heard over the two voices.

Minerva quickly untied herself and dropped to the floor.

There was less than a foot of space between the rim of the Cloister Bell and the ground, plenty of room for Minerva to stick out the device she held.

She pulled out a pair of ear plugs and put them in her ears. _You might want to cover your ears._

The Doctor had no clue what she meant, but found out very soon after.

Minerva had rolled over on her back (keeping the tip of the device sticking out from under the bell), braced her legs against the clapper, and pushed.

The resulting noise was extremely loud (the room itself tempered the sound so those in the TARDIS wouldn't go deaf) and made everyone but Minerva jump and fall to their knees.

The Pixos had tossed up the circuit up in the air when it jumped, and Minerva took the chance to catch it with the device.

The Pixos began to beat against the sides of the bottle it was now locked in, screaming profanities in its native tongue.

Jack noticed the flying circuitry and made a dive for it. He caught it, but at the cost of losing his breath from landing so hard.

Minerva stilled the clapper and set about coiling up the rope so she could put it back in her pocket.

The Doctor stuck his head under the Cloister Bell. "You all right?" he yelled, his hearing still suffering a little.

_I'm fine_, Minerva replied mentally. _No need to shout._

The Doctor grinned. "That was a nice plan. How'd you get in here anyway?"

Minerva grinned and squeezed out from under the Cloister Bell. "I'm like a rat or a snake in some ways; I can make myself fit in tight spots. Comes in handy every now and then."

Jack stood up once he had his breath back and tried to clean ears out with a finger. "Did you need to make us go deaf?" he questioned.

Minerva smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. It was the only thing I could think of. And I did tell the Doctor that the two of you should cover your ears."

Jack glared at the Doctor. "You could have told me."

He shrugged. "I didn't know what she meant."

Minerva just smiled softly and shook her head.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Well, let's get back to building that device. God knows how long we've got until the multiverse implodes or something."

The Doctor picked up the bottle the Pixos was now trapped in. "What exactly are we going to do with this thing?"

Minerva smirked darkly as she took the bottle from the Doctor. "I know you're against killing things as a rule, but just this once, could we just throw it into a black hole or something?"

The Doctor looked coldly down at the Pixos, who shrank in fear of the power it saw in the Doctor's eyes. "I know just the one to toss it in." He left the room.

Minerva and Jack exchanged a look before following him to the Console Room.

He was flipping switches and the like, setting the coordinates for the black hole Krop Tor used to 'orbit'.

Once they were there, Minerva opened the doors of the TARDIS.

"See ya in my nightmares!" she told the Pixos before throwing the bottle from the TARDIS.

The bottle was immediately sucked into the black hole once it was free of the protection of the TARDIS.

Minerva shut the door and turned around to face the other two occupants of the Console Room. "Well, now that that's done, can I have a hug?"

The Doctor grinned and held open his arms.

Minerva rushed right into them and hugged him tightly.

The Doctor squeezed her just as tightly.

Something clicked in his mind and he looked down at the top of her head with a soft smile.

He hugged her once more before letting her go.

Minerva couldn't help but smile at him.

Jack put the circuitry down and held open his arms. "I'm feeling left out."

Minerva laughed and hugged him too. She pulled away. "Let's go finish."

The Doctor motioned her on ahead. "We'll be there in a minute."

"Okay." She left the room.

The Doctor turned to Jack. "She's mine, isn't she?"

Jack pretended to be confused. "I don't know what you mean."

"The Historian, she's my daughter. She's mine and Donna's daughter, isn't she?"

Jack glanced towards the doorway. "I can't tell you. It might start a paradox. Rose told me about the Reapers, and I have no wish to ever meet any."

The Doctor picked up the circuit. "She is. Jenny's the one trying to stop her. And the reason Donna and her mum can't see the Historian is because they'll know that she's Donna's child and Sylvia's granddaughter."

Jack sighed. "I'm not going to tell you either way, Doctor."

"Let's just get back to building the device. I want Donna back as soon as possible." The Doctor replied.

Jack nodded.

*~*~*~*

A day later found the trio, Ianto, and Gwen in the Hub around the Rift Manipulator.

Everyone wore a pair of dark goggles and the two mortal humans were safely behind the glass walls of Jack's office while the two Time Lords and Jack stood near it with the device on a special type of table that attracted Rift Energy.

The device itself looked much like a TV remote with fewer buttons.

"We ready?" Minerva questioned from her spot behind a computer.

The two males standing by the table nodded.

"Go for it." Jack replied.

Minerva instantly began to type in codes, faster than even her mother could type.

The Rift Manipulator began to generate energy that went straight for the table and device.

Sparks flew, not just because the energy was hitting the table, but because Minerva was pushing the Manipulator faster.

"Stop! You're going to blow us all up!" the Doctor yelled over the sound of the Manipulator.

Minerva ignored him and just typed in more codes that made it go even faster.

The Doctor tore off his goggles and ran over to Minerva. He reached out to grab the keyboard from her, but recoiled when what felt like an electric current zapped him as he touched Minerva.

She didn't spare him a look as she pushed it even faster.

The Doctor reached for his sonic screwdriver and was just about to press the button to stop the Manipulator when it came to a complete standstill.

Minerva pushed her goggles up to act as a headband and put on her sunglasses. She looked at the Doctor. "I know what I was doing. Now all that's left is getting the Medusi Crystals."

The Doctor stared at her. "You could have blown up the whole of Cardiff, not to mention Wales! What were you thinking?"

She tore off the goggles and tossed them onto the desk. She whirled to stand toe-to-toe with the Doctor, her own Converse trainers touching his. "I know what to do. I had everything under control. The type of energy needed to give it a lasting charge can only be produced by making the Rift Manipulator move extremely fast. And as you saw, I stopped it before it could do lasting damage to anything."

Jack walked over and took a look at the readings on the computer.

His jaw dropped open.

"You got it to reach Critical without causing it to blow?" he questioned in shock.

Minerva turned to look at him, a smile making the corners of her mouth twitch. "Of course I did. It wasn't that hard. All you have to do is type in this and tweak the flow of that, and it hits Critical." She pointed out each thing on the monitor as she told him.

The Doctor put on his brainy specs and looked at the monitor over Jack's shoulder. He gave a low whistle. "That's complicated stuff. Where'd you learn all that?"

"My father. He's forever teaching us stuff."

"He's clever." the Doctor replied.

Minerva grinned widely. "He sure is. Number one dad in the whole multiverse." She bounced on the balls of her feet. "Can we go to the Medusa Cascade now? Pleeeeease?"

The Doctor laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as Ianto and Gwen came out of Jack's office. "Let's get something to eat first, then we'll go."

She wrapped both arms around his waist. "Can I have fish and chips? Please? Or even a cheeseburger and chips would do."

He ruffled her hair. "Anything just so long as it has chips with it, right?"

She laughed as she ran a hand through her hair to fix it. "Pretty much. And mayonnaise of course. Can't have chips without mayonnaise with them."

Jack laughed. "You have some strange tastes, kiddo."

She stuck her tongue out at him. "Blame my father. Ooooh, I could go for a choco-nana shake right about now too. That sounds so good."

"There's a place not that far from here that has those." Ianto told her.

She grinned at him. "I know. But what are we waiting for? Let's go get some food!"

Everyone else could only laugh as she rushed out the Hub door.

*~*~*~*

The Doctor and Jack stood in the doorway of the TARDIS, looking out at the large patch of Medusi Crystals that surrounded them.

Minerva was leaning against the Console, polishing off her chocolate-banana shake.

"So, exactly how are we supposed to harvest these crystals we need?" Jack questioned.

Minerva put down her Styrofoam cup, pulled on a pair of thick gloves, and pulled a butterfly net from her pocket. "Like so." She squeezed past the two, took a deep breath, and flung herself out into space.

The net was half full of crystals when the two men grabbed her hands to pull her back inside a couple minutes later.

The Doctor crossed his arms sternly. "That was a stupid stunt you pulled."

She shrugged nonchalantly and strode over to where her cup sat. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go sort these."

Jack closed the TARDIS doors. "Won't touching them cause a paradox?"

"Not if I wear these gloves. We need two crystals of near-perfect composite or else we risk blowing a hole in the multiverse roughly the size of Texas." She walked off into the hallway and entered a room that appeared on her right.

Inside was her lab, the lab she had built when she was only six and spent many hours in when her family wasn't out saving the multiverse or running for their lives.

Already the TARDIS had set up the equipment she needed to test the crystals so she could find the ones she needed.

She carefully dumped the crystals into a velvet lined tray underneath a magnifier with a built-in scanner/light.

The dull ones were instantly sorted out and those with unstable configurations were carefully placed in another container she would pack away for use at a later date.

There were seventeen possibly suitable crystals left on the velvet lined tray when she was finished. They needed further testing before she was certain they were perfect for the jobs she was going to use them for.

She grabbed the tray and pushed her rolling chair across the room to a strange machine only she understood. She had put it together to do multiple things at once, and no one could work it but her.

Each crystal was placed within the machine one at a time and put through its paces until she had weeded out all but five crystals.

The two with the most perfect construction were set to the side to be placed in the remote. The other three were gently and reverently wrapped in dark blue silk before being placed in a small cedar box she put in her pocket.

Jack had just raised his hand to knock on her lab door when she opened it and placed the two crystals in his hand.

"The Doctor will know how to put them in the remote. I'll be in my room if either of you need me."

Jack could only stare after her curiously as she disappeared down the hall.

Minerva entered her room, flipped the lock on her door, and went straight to her desk. She pulled the necklace she wore from under her shirt.

From the chain hung two keys and an extremely rare stone carved in the shape of a heart with the Lungbarrow crest engraved on it. One key was to the TARDIS and the other, a small silver key, was to a certain drawer of her desk.

She slipped the key into the keyhole, gave it a twist, and opened the drawer to reveal her metalworking supplies.

In an effort to ensure her children were well rounded and _not_ just into science and causing trouble, Donna had tried her hardest to get them interested in some sort of art.

Several of Minerva's siblings were very talented musically and they would regularly put on concerts for the family. Roselyn, Minerva's youngest sister who was only six, was a child prodigy in painting and had impressed several of the master painters themselves. Others had gifts in other types of art; one younger brother of eight was a whiz at game designing and all other sorts of cyber-arts.

Minerva had taken her mother's teachings to heart. She could play the piano, violin, and flute (her father had beamingly stated that her talent with the flute came from him), enjoyed making pottery and clay sculptures, and did metalwork.

The metalwork was actually more due to a blacksmith the family had helped out during the Middle Ages than her mother.

She pulled out thin silver wire, a pair of small pliers used to twist the metal into whatever shape she wanted, wire cutters, a small soldering gun, and a small plastic case that held earring hooks and the like. She straightened a length of silver wire and began to twist it into complex swirls that seemed to interlace. She made a sort of cradle to hold the crystals.

Out of her pocket came her own version of the Sonic Screwdriver.

She sat it to the proper setting and touched the tip to one of the best two crystals of the three she'd saved.

A second after she pressed the button, bits of it broke off and it seemed to sparkle brighter.

She repeated it with the matching crystal and then placed one in the cradle.

A moment later, she sat back with a smile as she placed her soldering gun to the side before cutting the length off the rest and using her Sonic Screwdriver to flatten the sharp part.

She attached it to an earring hook and set about making a mate for it.

Pride flooded her when she was done.

A pair of carefully and lovingly made earrings sat before her, ready to be placed in the silk lined box she had in her pocket.

She was sure her mother would love them, and since they matched pretty much every outfit Donna Noble owned, they were guaranteed to be worn almost every day.

"Well, there's Mum's gift taken care of. Good thing I've already made Wilf's present." She hummed some song that had been floating around in her head as she put the earrings in the box, tied a ribbon around it, and then put the box in the inside pocket of her coat.

With a content smile, she sat back down to make a pendant for herself out of the remaining crystal.

After all, it was going to be her birthday too. Why shouldn't she make herself a gift?

*~*~*~*~*~*


	5. Chapter 5: Great Gramps Saves the Day

Chapter 5: Great Gramps Saves the Day

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

*~*~*~*~*~*

The TARDIS was parked in a shadowy alleyway about a few houses down from Donna's house.

The Doctor was staring out through the small crack in the doors, watching as Donna got in a car with her friends.

It was a Friday night, her usual Girls' Night Out day and the night her friends tried to hook her up with some guy at whatever pub they ended up at.

He looked at Minerva once the car had passed by the alleyway. "Jack and I will go and speak with Sylvia. Stay here."

She crossed her fingers behind her back and nodded as she leaned against the Console.

Jack gave her a quick grin before following the Doctor out the doors.

The TARDIS gave a disapproving hum as Minerva pulled the royal purple hoodie she'd flung over the railing on.

Minerva faced the Console. "I know I'm supposed to stay here, but I've been sneaking around Gram's house since I was able to crawl. I know how to get around without being seen. And I have to speak with Great Gramps. He's the one who actually convinces Gram to let Daddy change Mum."

A perception filter appeared on a small hook by the doors.

Minerva smiled. "Thanks girl." She put the chain over her head and exited.

Wilfred Mott was up on the hill behind the house he shared with his daughter and granddaughter with his telescope, looking up at the stars. He was hoping he'd see a blue police box.

"I've always thought the night sky of Earth was the most beautiful sky in the entire multiverse." a female voice stated from behind Wilf.

He turned in his seat.

His mouth fell open at what he saw.

Minerva smiled and walked over to stand next to where he sat. "May I?" She gestured towards the telescope.

Wilf closed his mouth and nodded.

Minerva bent down and looked through the eyepiece. "Ah, the nebula around Romana Centari. Beautiful place to visit this time of year. The Tepishari have a lovely festival celebrating what would be their spring."

Wilf sat back in his chair. "And just who are you?"

She turned to face him, tucking the sunglasses into her hoodie pouch. "My name is Minerva Alexandria Noble. And I am the oldest of your great grandchildren."

"You look just like Donna. But she hasn't had any kids yet, which means you're from the future." Wilf looked at her and noticed the way her blue eyes shined with knowledge beyond anything a human could know and power. He threw his head back and laughed. "Oh I knew the Doctor would figure something out. They're a beautiful couple."

Minerva chuckled as she sat down by his legs. "They are the most beautiful couple I've ever seen. And it's impossible _not_ to see how in love they are with each other. He's down at the house now with Uncle Jack, trying to explain what he wants to do to Gram." She rested her head on his knee. "He's gonna need your help to convince her, especially since it's going to change her."

Wilf gently ran a hand through Minerva's hair like he used to do when Donna was younger. "Changer her how?"

"Daddy was right when he said that she'd burn up if she remembers. The human mind is too small to hold all the knowledge of a Time Lord, let alone be able to handle the ability to see Time Strands and the consequences of actions. The only way to actually save her from that fate is to turn her into a Time Lord. We may look like humans, but we're different. Our brains are basically like the TARDIS, bigger on the inside than the outside. It's how we hold everything we know and our higher senses without burning up or going insane. With my help, Daddy's built a machine that'll do that. Gram is not going to like the idea of Mum changing species."

"She'd get over it eventually, especially when Donna gets pregnant with you. How many kids does Donna have?" Wilf looked down at her.

Minerva smiled and pulled out the picture in her pocket. She handed it to him. "There's eleven of us now. Mum's pregnant again, three months along with numbers twelve and thirteen. I'm pretty sure there's not going to be anymore after that. Mum's almost forever complaining about everyone leaving things laying about and says she's already got twelve kids and can't believe she let Daddy talk her into more. The TARDIS is full of noise most days."

Wilf chuckled as he handed the picture back. "I bet it is considering who your parents are. Want some tea?"

"I'd love some." She took the filled lid of the thermos he handed to her and stared at the liquid. "I miss you, you know. Not as much as Mum, but I do miss you."

"I've not met all of your brothers and sisters have I? Not in your time."

She shook her head. "Just me and Wilfred, my twin. Mum was pregnant with Sophia when it happened. Mum feels really bad that you don't know them, but she's always telling us stories about you."

Wilf looked back up at the stars. "As long as she and all of you are happy, I will be, no matter what."

*~*~*~*

Down in the house, Jack and the Doctor were having a hard time convincing Sylvia.

"You want to turn _my_ daughter into an _alien_?! I don't think so, sunshine!" Sylvia shouted.

"Now we know where Donna gets it from." Jack whispered to the Doctor out of the corner of his mouth.

The Doctor ignored his comment in favor of trying to plead his case. "Mrs. Noble, please, just listen. It's the only way to make sure she won't die in case something sparks a memory. I'm sure it's hard having to watch what you say around her, and I don't think you'd want it to happen while she's out. Strangers won't know to watch what they say around her, which means any sort of sets of words or a tone could bring up a memory. This is to keep her safe."

Sylvia sprang to her feet. "I will not allow you to turn my daughter into something she shouldn't be. She's _human_. And she's going to stay human." She stormed out of the room, passing Wilf in the doorway.

"What's this about turning Donna into something?" he asked as he entered the room.

Jack quickly explained it since the Doctor seemed to be off in his own little depressed world.

Wilf nodded. "You two go back to the TARDIS. I'll talk to Sylvia, bring her around. It's just a bit much for her right now that she doesn't see that it's the best thing for Donna."

"Thanks Wilf. I'll get him back. We're parked in the dark alleyway down the street." Jack walked the Doctor towards the door.

Minerva shot Wilf a smile through the window before taking off at a run towards the TARDIS.

Sylvia was in the kitchen, filling a battered kettle with water.

"It has to be done sweetheart. It's the best thing for Donna." Wilf told her as he stood in the doorway.

Sylvia angrily shut off the water and slammed the kettle on the burner. "He wants to turn her into what he is. She's human. She isn't supposed to be an alien."

Wilf entered the room and wrapped his arms around her.

Sylvia turned in his arms. "I want her to be happy Dad, but I don't want to lose her."

Wilf pressed a kiss on the top of her head. "You won't lose Donna. That's one thing you never have to worry about sweetheart. And this is the best thing for Donna. Having to watch what you say, having to hold back telling her how proud of her you are and how wonderful you think she is, it's been hard on you."

She pulled away and wiped at her eyes. "I know that. But is turning Donna into whatever he is really a good thing?"

Wilf got out teacups. "You have to admit that she was the happiest with him, travelling and saving people. And you've seen the way they look at each other. He loves her in the way Geoff loved you and Donna adores him like no other."

Sylvia got out the tea. "They do make a lovely couple, and she was happier than I can remember her ever being when she was travelling with him."

Wilf chuckled. "And you'll get more grandkids than you'll know what to do with from them."

Sylvia turned around to face him. "What did you say?"

Wilf grinned. "You keep harping on Donna about grandchildren. Well this idea of turning Donna into an alien was one of your granddaughters'. I won't say which one."

"They already have children?! Why didn't they tell me? I've probably missed so much." Sylvia complained.

"No, they don't have any kids yet. She's from the future. Came back to help the Doctor out since he's too emotionally involved to think straight when it comes to our Donna."

The kettle whistled shrilly and Sylvia pulled it off the burner.

"She came up to the hill to speak with me, showed me a picture of her family. She's a pretty thing. Looks just like her mum." Wilf told her as he sat down at the table. "At least give him a chance. He makes Donna happy."

Sylvia poured tea into their cups once it was steeped, thinking over everything the Doctor and Jack had told her.

Wilf waited, knowing that she had to work through everything.

Sylvia looked up from her study of her cup. "But what if it doesn't work?"

Wilf patted her hand. "It will sweetheart. And the Doctor'll do all he can to make sure Donna'll be all right."

Sylvia sighed. "I know. I guess we'll have to find him to let him know he can do it. But he'll have to promise me he'll take good care of her. I'll not have my only child go through what he has planned only to be dropped."

"I'll take care of it sweetheart. And you're not the only one he has to promise something to. He's gotta promise me a couple things, and many more to Donna herself." Wilf sat with Sylvia until their tea was finished and she'd gone upstairs. He pulled on his coat and exited the house.

The TARDIS was parked right where Jack had said it would be.

He knocked on the door and waited for it to open.

A minute later the Doctor opened it.

"Can I come in? It's a bit chilly out and I don't want Donna to see me standing here in case she comes back early." Wilf stated.

"Sure. Come on in." The Doctor stepped to the side and let Wilf into the TARDIS.

Wilf stared around in awe. "This is amazing. I can see why Donna loved it here."

Minerva peeked around the Console. "The TARDIS likes to make beings feel welcome. Unless they're dangerous of course." She went back to typing things on the keyboard.

There was a bad feeling in her gut and she knew that something was not going to go as planned. Plus she was a bit worried since she hadn't heard anything else out of Jenny since their battle in the Hub. She knew her half-sister well enough to know she had something planned.

Jack entered the Console room, holding a tea tray. He quickly sat it down on the Jump Seat and saluted Wilf. "Captain Mott, sir."

Wilf gave him a return salute. "Captain Harkness." He turned back to the Doctor. "I've come with some news."

"Is Donna all right?" the Doctor questioned.

"As far as I know, Donna's fine. She's out with some friends. I talked Sylvia into letting you save Donna. But she wants you to promise her that Donna will be taken care of, not dropped off when you tire of her." Wilf crossed his arms. "And I want a couple promises myself."

"Tell Sylvia…Better yet, I'll tell her myself. And what do you want me to promise?"

"I want my granddaughter taken care of. I want to know exactly how you feel about her, from you. And I want to know what your intentions with her are." Wilf replied.

The Doctor took a deep breath and nodded. "Fair enough." He looked Wilf in the eyes. "You have my most solemn oath that Donna will be taken care of for as long as I live and beyond that. And that is one promise I refuse to break because I love your granddaughter Wilf, and I'd love nothing more than to marry her and start a family."

Wilf beamed at him. "That's enough for me. Welcome to the family, Doctor." He hugged him.

The Doctor smiled and hugged him back. "Thanks Wilf."

Wilf pulled away to look at him. "I think you can call me Granddad or Gramps now, like Donna does."

"I think that might be a bit premature." Minerva stated from in front of the monitor. "Because if what I'm reading is correct, and the TARDIS is very rarely wrong, Donna has just been kidnapped by my half-sister. And if I know her as well as I'd like to think I do, she's going to try and get rid of Donna."

*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: As you can see, I am not dead and I think I finally got over my writer's block. And look, my laptop is all better. Still on slight hiatus though, finals are in a little over a week. I'll try to update as much as I can. Ta. Oh, and the Tepishari belong to my good friend Sybil Winchester. We share things. Thanks Cal. You're the greatest.


End file.
